Reviews

Since this cartoon came out in 1936, there's no way this was to introduce the first post WWII Chevrolets. The US didn't officially enter the war until 1941.

This starts out with a gnome (perhaps an elf, I'm not an expert on fictional tiny people, but they don't have wings, so I guess that rules out fairies, sprites, and a few others) watching how Cinderella's being treated by her 2 step-sisters who are both ordering her to do things at the same time in 2 different rooms. One step-sister needs help with her hair and the other needs her corset tightened and tied. The gnome stops laughing at times when, off camera, it appears that the 2 step-sisters are beating Cinderella off camera.

We then see the gnome taking Cinderella's measurements while she is sleeping on a thin mat on the floor. The cartoon Cinderella at this point is very realistically drawn. She looks like it could almost have been an Impressionistic painting or pastel drawing.

The gnome gets the others to help - spiders spin the silk for her gown and most of the gnomes build a coach using a pumpkin, plus some grape vine for shock absorbers, fireflies for headlights, worms wrapped around flowers for wheels, and so forth.

The coach then goes through a "modernizer" and is turned into a brand new Chevrolet as we see Cinderella in her gown and crystal slippers.

This fairly cheaply animated short brought to us by automobile manufacturers of the mid 1950s (there are fewer around now). This is supposed to take place in the then future of 2000 - showing the new 2001 cars. The cars of 2000 could pretty much drive themselves, fly in order to pass a slower car - nothing like the actual cars of 2000 - or 2012 for that matter, and probably not in 2022 either.

An office "worker" who has little to do - think George Jetson but looks more like Mr. Spacely, is thinking about getting a new car - his old one is almost a year and a half old. He drives home, reading the paper most of the way. He arrives home (with a 4-car garage) and after eating dinner of a pill and a drink, the table mounts on the wall and becomes a 3-D TV screen - one with a feature that our TVs don't have - people can actually enter your living room through the TV. One man does that to discuss the history of automobiles.

The man's alleged grandfather is shown with a 4-seat auto with hand-crank starter, no doors, no windshield, and no lights. Where then shown how cars were made safer and better over time. Old Grandad is driving pretty much through the entire program, including at the end, when he drives through the TV screen, says cars have changed a lot in his 117 years and he's going to go get a new car.

For reasons unknown, Clark Kent and Lois Lane are prisoners in Yokohama, Japan. Their jail cells are more like hotel rooms with metal grating over the windows than anything the Japanese actually interred prisoners. Clark Kent, at 11:00 PM each night, changes to Superman, commits an act of sabotage against the Japanese - usually against a naval vessel, but also destroys a bridge while a train is on it, blows up some tank-like vehicles, etc. Then Superman returns to his cell, replaces the grating, and changes back to Clark Kent.

A Japanese soldier sneaks into Lois' room and forcibly takes her to be executed. Why there weren't several soldiers taking her from her room at gun point, which is more likely to have happened isn't explained - perhaps an animation short cut.

Superman destroys another Japanese ship but many of the steel girders fall on him and he then sees the notice that if Superman commits one more act of sabotage, they will execute Lois. He manages to get there in time to block the bullets from harming Miss Lane, who, by the way, walked to her execution with dignity - like a good American supposedly should.

Clark stays behind to continue committing acts of sabotage after Lois returns to the US on a ship. Why is this pretty silly? Superman probably could have done more damage to the Japanese army and navy in fairly short order than the US was able to do in the first couple of years, but we can't have Superman winning the war single handedly, can we? Especially with 3 more bloody years to go, including the dropping of 2 bombs that did more destruction than Superman could have done.

I found this Ub Iwerks cartoon on iTunes (Vintage ToonCast podcasts #03) and thought that this was a fairly cute cartoon from the time of the Depression.

In this, Aladdin works for a man who exchanges 'new' lamps for old ones. The 'new' lamps are just old ones that Aladdin has polished to make new again. Aladdin is pretty much locked in a basement workroom and one day manages to see the beautiful princess pass by in a parade. She drops a rose by his barred window and before Aladdin can pick it up through the bars, an elephant steps on it twice. This was enough for Aladdin to fall in love with the princess.

The man Aladdin works for then dumps a large sack full of old lamps for Aladdin to polish. One is the magic lamp. Aladdin polishes this lamp and a giant genie appears offering to grant his wishes. He wants to be in the palace.

Then, in the sultan's palace, what appears to be a huge meal is brought to the sultan. He takes the lid off of the meal tray and there appears Aladdin wearing the same rags that he was working in. He rubs the lamp and is finely dressed. There are a few more wishes and the man Aladdin worked for tries stealing the lamp.

The lamp ends up inside the sultan and Aladdin cleverly deals with his former boss with the use of a blow torch. Aladdin then wishes to be with the princess and suddenly, he lands in her bathtub. She falls in love with Aladdin (you couldn't expect otherwise, could you?) and as the happy couple are together, you can hear the man yelling, "New lamps for old." He then gets plenty to work with.

For this Keystone slapstick to be believed, you must be able to imagine that Roscoe Arbuckle could put on a pair of Charley Chase's pants and a tuxedo jacket and the only problem is that the legs would be too short for the pants and the jacket sleeves would be too short and that he couldn't close the jacket. In reality, Arbuckle couldn't get either garment on.

If you can overlook this obvious problem, this is a pretty funny short and is one time that Arbuckle doesn't come out on top in the end. Roscoe and Charley Chase are both competing for the affections of Minta Durfee to attend a dance that evening that requires dress clothes. Charley has either rented or bought a tux earlier, Roscoe hadn't. Charley stops by on his way home (conveniently located next door to Roscoe's house) to show off his tux. Roscoe tries to get his mother to let him have 50 cents to rent a tux and she refuses. It's kind of implied that Roscoe is lazy and doesn't do any work by his mother pointing to his arms and pointing out how strong he is. He stretches out his arms and makes some motions like, yes, he is strong, but, instead, starts yawning.

Roscoe then tries to steal Charley's tux by knocking him out while he's standing next to Minta. She knocks him over, Charley and Roscoe start fighting and Charley appears to have the upper hand until a cop shows up. During all this, the tux apparently needs to be aired out, so Charley hangs the tux and top hat on his clothes line, which is also attached to Roscoe's house, and this allows Roscoe to steal the tux.

Charley doesn't find out that his tux has been stolen until it is time to go to the dance where he sees Roscoe wearing his tux with the incredible shrinking waistband and unusually broad shoulders in the back of the jacket. Charley sneaks in through a window, and comically removes the tuxedo from Roscoe, although, at first, only the pants. Roscoe is embarrassed as he helps Al St. John, in an extremely subdued performance for him, move a table from one room into the room where everyone is dancing. This is when everyone sees Roscoe without pants and a fight breaks out.

In the end, Roscoe, basically in his underwear, is out on the street getting arrested and hauled off to jail wearing a barrel as Charley and Minta laugh out of a window.

This starts out with a very busy architect coming home with Christmas gifts to find his wife and young daughter had left him on December 23rd. The wife was tired of being neglected. The husband was supposed to take their daughter to see Santa Claus so she could ask him for a puppy.

For some reason, the wife and daughter stop off at a hotel in the late afternoon and go to bed while it's still light out (a travel clock shows about 5:30) on their way to stay with the wife's sister. The daughter is worried about Santa finding her. The husband drives all night searching for them and does manage to find them, but only sits in the car.

When the wife wakes up, the daughter is missing - this is where Dan Matthews and the Highway patrol come in. The husband is brought in for questioning as a suspect. The highway patrol finds a young girl's handkerchief with what appears to be blood on it.

The girl shows up at a Salvation Army shelter because of the Santa Claus bell ringer. She's holding a small dog with a wounded paw. Somehow, she found a blanket to wrap the dog with. Santa brings her inside the shelter and feeds both her and the dog some soup and that's where Dan Matthews finds her and reunites the family.

For today's audiences, this seems over the top, or as a few comments stated, "heavy- handed". Try to imagine what life was life in 1912 for immigrants - different languages spoken, different mores, and different laws.

One of the appealing aspects of silent movies for immigrants was that one could be entertained, even if you spoke little to no English. Without the subtitles, one could still tell that this big Russian man's behavior changed. One didn't need to know English to know that it is frowned upon to beat your wife - regardless of how accepted it might have been in the "old country". You also didn't need to know English to notice that the couple seemed much happier after the husband learned that there were consequences for spousal abuse.

"Making an American Citizen" addresses one aspect that some immigrants needed to know about their new country - this makes me wonder if there were similar movies made around the time to help people learn about living in the United States.